Marines try to work themselves out of job in Iraq

North County Times:

Marine Maj. Gen. John F. Kelly, the man who will lead more than 11,000 local troops in Iraq for the next 12 months, said Wednesday that his goal is to "work ourselves out of a job."

And if that happens, another Marine officer later said individual units may be sent home long before their scheduled one-year deployment comes to an end.

"As we step back and the training wheels come off for the Iraqi army and security forces, we will stand in the background ready to support them," Kelly said after a ceremony at Camp Pendleton marking the activation of the I Marine Expeditionary Force.

The force, composed of two 5,000-member regimental combat teams and a headquarters group, is on its way to Iraq's Anbar province to relieve the North Carolina-based II Marine Expeditionary Force.

Lt. Col. Chris Hughes said planning also is under way to send as many as possible home before their scheduled one-year deployments end if stability in Anbar continues.

"If it's time to send someone home, we are going to do that," said Hughes, a public affairs officer.

Hughes suggested the earliest that could happen would be at least three months from now. Planners also must take into account bringing home the tons of equipment that have been sent to Iraq to support the troops, he added.

Whether anyone comes home earlier than expected, however, also will depend on the security environment and what the overall U.S commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, thinks is necessary, said Kelly, who is headed to Iraq for the third time.

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No Camp Pendleton troops have been reported killed in Iraq since Oct. 8. Since the March 2003 invasion, 330 base troops have died in Iraq along with 10 others from Miramar Marine Corps Air Base, according to icasualties.org, which tracks fatality and injury statistics.

In his earlier remarks to more than 200 Marines preparing to fly to the Middle East, Kelly said that while the war was not over and that Anbar remained a dangerous place, "We are winning it -- there's no doubt."

"After four years of standing firm against a vicious enemy, we have been able to neutralize al-Qaida in Anbar," he said. "This is now spreading throughout Iraq."

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Maj. Stephen Van Riper, an operations planner, underscored the reported successes seen in Anbar, saying his study of military history hasn't revealed any instance of the kind of progress made in Anbar ever being reversed.

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Al Qaeda has no future in Anbar. It is barely hanging on in Diyala and is on the run every time an offensive is planned. Perhaps we can keep them on the run by announcing operations and watching them scatter. The Marines in Anbar have shown the way in working with the Sunni tribes. It has been a major strategic defeat for the religious bigots who thought they could win through intimidation.